A coalition of human rights and maternal healthcare activists has petitioned the constitutional court seeking to force the government to provide basic maternal health care in order to reduce the number of mothers dying while giving birth.

Mary Kamukama who is leading the group says the government has not done enough to combat maternal mortality, yet the constitution provides for the right to life and the right to proper health care which the government should provide.

She says recent reports indicate 16 women die every day in Uganda while giving birth, a figure she says is unacceptable.

Kamukama says they want court to pronounce itself on the health and life rights provided in the constitution and compel the government to provide a basic maternal health care package in all health centres across the country so that pregnant women receive appropriate attendance.

She says the court will greatly help save the lives of women if it compels the government to invest more money in providing maternal health services in order to ensure the rights of pregnant women to life and good health are upheld.

(Source: weinformers.net).

Now I can’t say what the possibilities for success in this legal action are, but it raises a fundamental question:

What specifically do we want from a government?? What is it that we want government to be responsible for??

What is the basic expectation??

Here in Queensland, a state in Australia, a so-called First World country, more people die on hospital waiting lists

than do in car accidents! If you get sick, and you don’t have medical insurance or the money, you are screwed mate.

The state government has however allocated tens of millions of dollars to secure the next Commonwealth Games!

Spare me!

It behoves all citizens, in every country, to explicitly enter into such a debate, and for them to reach an

understanding as to a minimum expectation of service and responsibility from government.

There’s much noise, (sort of) related to this issue , as in America, much abuse and obfuscation, but little, if any,

rational consideration (which is precisely what an opponent to this idea would want– gotta keep me making

money, gotta keep me in control!).

Make your voice heard!

I guess we can always keep doing what Indian authorities just did at their Commonwealth Games. Round up the

poor, the homeless, the beggars, and move them out of the Games areas! Er, nothing to see here . . .

PART 1: QANTAS ANNOUNCES 1000 JOB LOSSES TO MAKE THE COMPANY MORE PROFITABLE.

Unions have sharply criticised Qantas as the airline announced it had doubled its profits a week after it said it needed to lay off 1000 workers.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce reported a $249 million after-tax profit for 2010-11 — about twice what it earned the previous year. Its before tax profit amounted to more than $550 million, which is a rise of about 50% over the 2009-10 financial year.

On August 16, Qantas announced plans to restructure its business, which would include cutting up to 1000 Australian-based jobs.

Despite the doubling of its after-tax profits, Joyce claimed the job cuts were still needed because the result did not give Qantas’ shareholders a big-enough return on their investment.

TOP Qantas executives pocketed a $5 million increase in a year and the board almost doubled their directors’ fees.

The Transport Workers Union has compiled a dossier of executive and board member salaries and found

multi-million-dollar increases among top management.

“The pay packets of the Qantas executives and board members are climbing faster than any 747,” TWU national

secretary Tony Sheldon said.

“They are also rising at a time when the share price is falling. The only job security they seem to care about is their own.”

The increases include:
* EIGHT most senior executives getting a pay rise of 62 per cent from $8.9 million last year to $14.4 million this year;

* FEES of the board going from $4 million to $7.9 million in the last four years, and totalling more than
$21 million in that period; and
* CEO, chairman, former CEO and former chief financial officer getting more than $52 million in the past four years.
The increase in executive pay was fuelled by the 71 per cent increase for CEO Alan Joyce, although this does include as yet unpaid bonuses based on him meeting targets

The new executive packages comes in a year when the airline’s share price has fallen and it failed to declare a dividend. It is also less than a month since it announced it would axe 1000 jobs.

Union officials immediately latched on to bigger increase to claim management was rubbing salt in the wound.

“It’s hypocrisy of the first order for management to give themselves substantial pay rises when they’re about to sack 1000 Australian workers and offshore the airline to avoid Australian workplace laws and salaries,” the vice-president of the Australian and International Pilots Association, Richard Woodward, said.

. . . . . . anyone else notice something not quite right here???

LESSON:

In this instance a company, but in general, conventional authority, by their conduct and decisions, clearly

do not care about saying, or more importantly, doing, the right thing, They act like they are gods.. . . . .

1 % of the world population own 40 % of global wealth. The richest 2 % of the world population own more than 51 % of global wealth, the richest 10 % own 85 %!

50 % of the world population own less than 1 % of global wealth.

An Australian mining company operates a mine in a developing country. The government of that country is paid

royalties (and likely corrupt payments too). The people who live in the area of the mine, had lived there before

the mine was opened, find not only do they not benefit, but the environment is increasingly compromised until the

pollution levels are such that they cannot remain living there.

And they protest.

They are ignored.

What action now is open to those people??

Is it such a surprise that they grab a rifle and fight?

Political and business leaders would line up to condemn them; but they had no choice.

Under pressure from the Chinese regime, last week the South African government denied the Dalai Lama a visa, so

that he could enter the country to attend Desmond Tutu’s birthday party.

The Dalai Lama has never advocated violence, and always appears willing to discuss, consider, and forgive, and is

the closet to any living Socrates-type person I am aware of.

“Our government – representing me! – says it will not support Tibetans being viciously oppressed by China. You, president Zuma and your government, do not represent me. I am warning you, as I warned the [pro-apartheid] nationalists, one day we will pray for the defeat of the ANC government,” said Tutu.

As I’m typing this a representative of the Minerals Council of Australia is being interviewed on the tv news. He says

all areas, including national parks, should be made available for mining.

Ah, yes white man, you’ve no sacred sites at all.

We live in an era where politics and business reject any notion of proper conduct, where control and greed have

become defining principles.

The anti corporate greed protests are only a beginning.. . . . .

“It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody’s blood whether they
were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free
themselves, the capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse
completely.” Malcolm X